a lament i wrote in 1997..

 

It's no fun being old, when the nights are cold
and the bees in the hive no longer sing.
It's no fun being old, when the nights are rolled
in a bottle of ale and a coal-face wind.
When time began, there were fashions to try,
but, underground, life's pit denies;
as night follows day, the miner's eye
is all that gleams as the black hill's spy.
It's no fun being old: recollections of young men
snarl around the slack as old age rends.
It's no fun being old: recollections of young men
snarl and snap the back as coal-seams end.
I do not want what I have not got:
soot-black to my bones, I do not want a thing.
I do not want what I have not got:
soot-black to the bones, life's drifting dins.
And I remember Charlie and I remember Baker,
remember all those lads who dug down every acre;
and I remember Charlie and I remember Baker,
remember all those kids whose coal-faced splendour
banged in the lungs and choked the ears and eyes
and carried the cross of the pit-lights in the skies
and banged in the lungs and choked the land with tears
and carried the cross to weekends on the pier.
Come, let me tell you the story of my doings.
Come, let me tell you the story of my days.
Beginning down the mine, I dug the underspines
of every underworld to have puffed up from the clays.
The bottle is dead by seven and the sun
a soot-black rattle, cackles like a gun -
and when I was twelve I went beneath the world
to dig for fifty years in a coal-face for the pearls
of industry, factory, fireside and scuttle,
suffering as I dig like a mouse drowned in a puddle,
suffering like a sentry of dark and daft demesnes,
suffering like a soldier with a severed arm for dreams.
It's no fun being old when the buddy in the cage
has keeled a million times and the pithead's glassy rage
has grassed over millions of villages of lives
and the kettle turned black has made a tea of knives
and the sickle in the sun has carved away the moon
and the hammer in the drum has beat away the womb
and the manacled maidens I wished upon when young
have smoked into a grave of still-born thrum.
We did not come to dig for all our days.
We did not come to dig for all our ways.
But dig we had to do with our days behind our back
and the sun and moon as blackened as a cat.
It's no fun being old when the bees don't sing
and the world outside the windows has broken in the wind
and the pit-side's master has masked away the mind
in the penniless pockets of the pit-men doing time.
It's no fun being furled in flat old age
when the workhouse doors have opened like a wave
and the memories of good times are dreams with foolish ends
and the memories of bad times are as dear as missing friends.
It's no fun, and this I'm telling you:
coal-face crucifixion is all we ever knew.
It's no fun, and this I'm saying right:
coal-face crucifixion is the cancer in our pipes.
And I remember Charlie and I remember Baker,
remember all the lads who lit the black touch-paper
and sent their infant firework smearing into flames
and never knew just how the pit-face in the rain
could only come to burn away their prides
and leave them eighty-plus in a damning of their tides
and suck away laughter and char away their souls
and graft their childhood days to a cradle full of coals
This is the coal-face all of us are born to.
This is the coal-face each of us is wed to.
This is the underground chamber in the mind
that never learns enough to rise above the time.
Black in the blackness, black as burning trees,
black as Aberfan and the death of infancy,
black as the angels who lit this fag-ash way,
black we grow older and black we must decay.
Black as black, black as black death,
black as coke that fumes beneath the breath;
black as black, black as blackdeath rats,
black is our sun and black is heaven's back.
Born underground and dying in the dark,
digging is the darkness that plunders all our hearts,
and digging now we lie, our hearts and minds soot-heavy,
digging shallow graves in the twilight of the century.
Digging we lie, our hearts and minds resigned
to a certainty of heaven that stifles as it binds;
what we had, never had, and now shall never own
slumbering behind us; a pick-axe to our bones.

 

*
copyright jedbellamy, 1997.

 

..

title:  we should slam some belladonna?..     1st draft  1st  poem then poem-song...

 

& we should slam some belladonna under
funereal father-thunder
& we should string lady lips to lovers
& a bowl of whips must lash all fathers
..
o when once a bell of brawlers brothers
hidden eyes under ice-cream machines
then a bed of light star-delights
blind bosuns who die for sharp latrines
.
& we should slam some belladonna under
chilled doll-bells
& we should lover-sunder sliced fever.

*
the deus of town-delis snaps curtain-dunes
o the skies of grounds crash
when, spilled, my giddy father buys trash
& a swig of sauce hagglers after ash
& a sprig of gorse grabblers after hash
once upon a mind, a pretty park plashed
coded scissor-highways that crashed
coda screens with radio yoyos
& we supper beasts
& we dream for feasts
..
the deus of town-delis snaps curtain-tunes
o, the eyes of grounds crash
under wailed star-splashed
meadow fevers
ah, easy eaters of crapped mits lever
Leda where swanny Zeus cuts Mother
.,.
eyes breakdown where unicorn devils
run the sunshine through
*
on a penny highway to the spies in the rain
drop dreams at the sides of grain
o, a sea of fire sucks mush as city pain
bridles cats with canteens
la la
once upon a mind in a deaf world, dreams
rampaged after dogs of silver
& a dizzy lover drops sold fevers
& a bone of wine
widens under city wynds
oh a penny highway to the spies in Spain
switch a sonar radio when
eaters of solar shadow heeds women
& we hear radio ponies
& we sear riding phonies
..
under a blinded bastard moon, babies
brag for grey seizures
& a fitter of a face stops, stops,..
*
the killers of candlers carry a wall of easy Downs
where, spilled, we blood beds with crowns
o a sea of faders marry meddlers to grey towns
& we paint the dead
& we count rivers on the highway
&, la, as we ride for bed then dreamer's dregs
drop salt under a city
..
once upon a maze, i heard a bud of braids made
older then the hearts of time
ah, we will suffer minds as mental fever-rhyme
heaps gasses under griped mien-wine
..
the killers of candlers carry a wall of easy Downs
when, hilled, we blood buds with clowns
ah a tree of thrills drops an oaked punch & sound
fills up a bad brain with giddy parks
& we lie in the rain as we cry in the rain
& we cry in the mind as we weep in the dark
..
hollowers of easter men chop a cocoa egg,-
eager sisters of xmas men
wallop feasts with gift-wrapped old women,
*
the wiveners of sky-rain sweeps spies when
odes to old thrillers
wash old hands in american rivers
o a wake of pure gold grasps to gold chicken
& we walk for night
& we talked all night
.
the wiveners of sun-rain weeps for children
o odes to oaken killers
widen ricks into trees
& a vault of mice raiser rabbiets from beads
& we walk for night
& we talked all night
...
a nautilus of silver rocks a starred boat
o a mentalis of rivers rocks a carved boat
& we suffer dunes
& we rot for starred high-noon
.,
openers of city walls fall aside old oats
..
O
*
bitter blinders of death dream of ogled silver
o killers of rhymers
rot for fathers when screens of open rivers
raise sex from grey mothers
once aside death, a draggler of mind-mirrors
smashes eyes with a blinded moon
la a tree of sex sinks vagismo under raiders
la a bed of wrecks
arouses crowed specs where grey kickers
carry carrion under deaths..
..
bitter blinders of death dream of ogled silver
o killers of rhymers
rot for fevers when screens of opal rivers
don dragons where burned gold grinders
drop sex into iron sidlers
..
ices feed soap to chilly dreams as height
spills purple leaders of carmine sea-bites
dying,.,,
*
o i saw a sunny woman sharing milk with kites
o i walked under children
o i carried thunder's pattern
& a park of pearls rammed a city's sights
inside a blown ground star-filled with women
o i saw a sunny woman sharing milks with
radiophonics in parks
the dilly men who cut me are gods now
ah silly hens smell of fried fats
o dilly men have left me & god's cloud
crashes, crashes
uhh
o i saw a sunny woman sharing silks with
ideal haunters of bad ghosts & silly kids
ah dizzy dreamers of mad hosts
sleep after sleepy sleekiness
& we nest in fires & we swallow cribs
..
the dizzy men who cunt me are gods now
ahh giddy sirens junk old dreams
laa, dead alarms funk after rolled clouds
& we jump the dead when
sandy sea-spunks heed ancient children
..
Uh
*
creatures in the park have huge trees for
their endless human hearts
o eaters under pulled dark have gold scores
& a pool of night
dazzles where chilled female light
turns out all lights
..
we jump for jazzy heights as cruel air writes
back home where the dead are playing
o we junk after jacked sites
o we brick-hang a soapy city's stone
& we are alone until atoned by bone
..
creatures in the park have huge trees for
their trendless female hearts
o eaters of feline spillers rape all wards
o sleepers under canine drillers
drink from coded swollen gourdes.
..
bad birds die in the trees as coded bawds
dollop sirens under selfless daddy dawgs
..
*
we prayed under dirtied playgrounds where
easy urchins loosened ties under thin-air
o, we prayed beneath guilty towns where
easy bird-men darkened eyes with hairs
once upon a mind in a tawny park-city
i overhead deaths come rocking daisies
& a motor mien heard grey female ditties
swinging for the jazzers of radio ladies..
we prayed for dens as we fell away from
blown carnivals & empties danced drums
o we rode to swung death
o we strobed after jazz-jawed loud guns
& we bejewelled a stoned T Rex with
milky dinners & prehistoric spiked kids.
...
once aside our souls, we look for rubies,-
once, aside love's goals, we hear oldies
spine-scattering signs upon rolled nippies
..
aas we swell up, then a party's gyspy
prances for lavender & hemps.. O, crazy
we raise a spire from old pinks & lazies
../
END
*
the odd times where we spended days atoned
lead us now into star-dark
o we send sex into a sunrisen sea of stoned
body baskets
as baby parakeets pry after gannets, then
coded dustive dreamers of granite sends us
away, away
la.
the odd times where we ended days alone
must strip a radio dreamer
with hoarse pussied bound blown scissors
& as a davy do
drags a scented vine for clues
then this sentence of fast paint must move
homeward
la.
as baby parakeets pray after parrots then
blind ochres of salty sweetening women
drop a doctoror of cunny days deep down
a blithe scene of guilty mamma Downs
./& we scale a wide wall of Downs?
clothed angels of pure fire wing for
heaped hands whose circle under floors
drink to lady leotard
..
the odd times where we rended sex
then a bud of lights nicked after pecked
coroders of navy lippers, Oh, grey mesh
swells up, up,.
eh./

*
Copyright jdb 8th December 2019

*

comment about my song-poems (received today)

That was like being caught in a hurricane of imagery, its vortex sucked me in and I could not help but read the next line, and just when it felt like the wind was easing, wham, along came another line of startling vision that sent me spinning all over again. My heart rate actually increased!

...

comment about my song-poems (received yesterday)

 

Woah wow your phrasing is novel and top notch in this sublime epic wow! And word play sort of too all awesome, from 'sovereign veins to plinths of wizardry. Interesting with fine vocabulary choice and I ESP admire , ' ambrosial, sirian and rapine and more. Kudos for this wonder muse.

 

...

MORE SPEED-WRITTEN SONG-SHEETS...

title     the ancient cyclists of the dead & gone   1st draft  1st poem then poem-song

 

WORK IN PROGRESS: TITLE: the bended knee of a female bee

1st draft    1st poem then poem-song

 

the bended knee of a female bee
blends bones into fires
la a hoarded hipped hive spires
against gluey tea-leaves
& we wash cocoa down with
coded coda stung rattle-hides

offers of carriages are ribbed
with radiophonic sadness..  Hills
fall as moany fountains spill

outside our lost toffee world..

*
the coffee stain of the tealeaved world
washes hats in pure wine
o toffees under veins suck candy lime
& a bed of fats
dreams forever.

the easy riders of a razor-room wind
adown a tangerine town
& we arise to see a vat of gowns
ending
,
the coffee stain of a tea-leaved world
washes skins in honey?

*
the bended bedded knee of a sea-gull child
drops a vile sex-pamphlet
o a shed of headed peas feeds a gannet
a helican heron of heated blued wild
summer ravens
..
once aside a mind, we mow Orion
o aside a blue wynd, we stow Orion
oh, a bellied crypt crashes under Zion
..
the bended bedded knee of a dolled child
stops to hear a hill of steeled lyons..

*
devils down drains dream of city droolers
o arched angelled clowns
cap a canyon with lewd hoovers
la a bed of christs crashes, crashes
la, devils down drains dream of spoilers

interfused, a patient of Buddha cuppers
a salad skein
&, wandered, a mallard's mains suppers
after bodied jackers
,.,
devils down drains drream of city spillers
o angelled clowns
crap upon lover-ponies
& we slash macaronis where
drabblers of pertive male cronies
raise a romancer from sandy stairs

interfused, a patient of Mamma savours
vampy soaky sex soda wraps
& we dream of lips
& we cream for kittened
dairy meaty mary-kisses
..
Uh.

*
cartilege in carriages marries melters to pigeons
&, lo, a sunny marriage of babbies
swills loaves from gardens,

once aside sin, a sunny laddy has heated garlands
made as cold as bitten rain
& rain cuts wet space when veins
wallop a soaked soupy scissor-strain
..
cartilege in carriages marries melters to prisons
&, la, a sunny mariner of a subhuman season
serves dog-winters to radios & grey grains
..
once aside spun sin, a dun lady heeds pain
.& pain swirls on a soft stool
& rain parks after a dunny killer spool
..
ideal headers of heated meringues reign
on a green throne where parrot-caged-cranes
swallow naked ice.

*
the diggery of a jazzy jive-jakey lands a snake
la a sea of sawny salt bride-ladies
hangs a river-saint
la a bone of glass asks for shrilled paint.. La!
we sail upstream as grey feints
follow sex unto the moon
..
cartilege in carriages shatter under fastened
salt flowers
o a drum of marriages stops a veil as gardens
cream up for flown flowers
..
the diggery of a jazzy jive-baby lands rakes
then we will poke four fingers up drapes
& we shall modernise no more
& we shall fascinate both the rich & poor
& we shall suck our eyes
,.,
ehh

*
these false veins where i made my name
hasten under trains
o railways heap trippers as bodies rain
aside a siren sound
& a beacher of women washes a town's
arisen baby frown
..
once, as we lost rain, then raft-rounds
searched for blue vitamins
& we hear red rain raiding raft-rounds
& we served pockets to vast sins..
..
these false veins where i made my name
jack for gemmed Gemima
& we gas coded vagina
& we clash for bone-bred Asia Minor
..
Uh

*
where cardomon cardigans carry a berry-hand
then blown transceivers will marry the dead?
o where caned cummy lands sweat for dregs
then a brawl of pure demure gold
will surely lay blue-waste to siamese brigands
..
eyes hear wide tears & a bled bed of souls
samons after fish-shaken river-ghouls,-    La!
once within a mind, a digger of draggled cars
crashes inside green pities & a lost sea-spar
..
where cardomon cardigans carry a cherry-can
then stoned receivers must truckle down clams
& a vault of grass
puffs a jayed juped Number
& a sea of glass listens to shattered mind-grass
..
eyes listen-. La-- crimes glisten..... La-  masks
send dollared boys to sleep.

*
the utterances of a naked burnt mind jump for
idiots of petuberances & dogs caught up with whores
oh a bowl of masks
jams now a masted Venus
& a slate of swine toasts heaped warfs as casks
don a dolly demon with wept woollen shores.
..
when once a diamond in a chain dons broads
then a molly damp-lamp will surely mind
a colly cave where a shadow on a cut spine
scatters jellied gates across the land.,-  Mines
dig for golden spermacides when
a bun of waxen veined vast brides snips hens
..
the utterances of a naked burnt mind jump for
ingots of pinky piled pinafores
ah as melted jazzed faces heap a horned score
then old pelicans must shooteth up, up, up

uhh.

*
o ducted doddered darksome pelicans
have smelly maggots at the ears
o raided radioed helenic fountains
have easy bladders inside bled tears
& eyes hear the mind
& lies libel after a slander-crime,
o ducted doddered darksome pelicans
have dizzy worms outside spheres
...
dabblers of crazy flesh whip weird
roses of blue fire & burnt cold beards
ahh a candler of hazy death sheers
odes to cunts from bunny bled spears
& midnight men hear blind beers
swallowing oils from cabins
...
o ducted doddered darksome pelicans
heat a mushy bummy fluff where cans
carry roped disease inside scrams
& a veil of tears hisses
& a sail of fear pisses
& a nose of night blows kisses
..
o do we extend tried hands to clouds?
o do we expend sex into sand-shrouds?
laa

the easters of candy xmas pave
dizzy homes with elvin silver-trades
& a motel in a flower kisses graves
& a bad boy in a head
issues tissues to a bonce in bed
./.
shhhhhhhhhh...

*
Copyright 15/12/ 2019.

jdb

*

work in progress -    title:  Fine Fast Swimmers Swing        1st draft 1st poem then song-poem

fine fast swimmer men swing upon cut tides
o a stove of spread killers
crashes, & a boat of milners raises eyes
underneath the seven seas of hat-minds,
& a brook of bells knells, knells.
..
once aside mossed dust, we snip gold gusts,-
nippled messy musk
muses on movement where old sluts
soften, just like the sun.

ricey red-knights knock on guns & we
slacken wrists where earths encage
cunts & cunny cauled castles.

*
musselers of hot whelk pools push a fast flint factory
under blurry vast promontories
ah  a star of milk falls as lunacy looks down

ricey red-knights rock old cum as sandled hounds
fall from emptied heaven
ah a mixer of miserly ravens swipes a crowned
yapper of dogdayed treason?

musselers of hot cockle stools slash a fast finger
under flimsy lockers of the dead & scissored,
& we hear of hens when deaf music drowns.

*
ricey ruiners of romantic sheds hide a dog where
idioms of mermen fish after wavelets & pug's hair
o, a mind of china whips the wall
o, a rhymed vagina hits a cake-stall
..
openers of manilla spunk swallows odd prayer
oo a cute vestibule of nude flares
slaps a bald fist
..
nuclear buckle-thrusts rocks the dead as mists
drop dead
..
ashen bled bees bind sweet slides to abed
dunny hive-held  lips      & dance ends


*
fast farmers of soverign blood takes a bed when
ancient fathers leap from women
& a coffee egg heats yolks where white hens
lay crooked money
..
ricy ruiners of romantic spreads ease after
rockers of old rolly polly cocking maskers
& we use abuse for the world
~o  we rape Aladdin with winter whorls
..
fast farmers of fevered mud takes to bed when
old kissers dance for a midnight girl
oh a paper paw extends raw catties as seasons
swap sad snows for swift flowers
.
ashen bled bees blind sweet lust & flour
cakes a waxy slate inside a quarter hour

uh

*
apeck honey hips hasten to fatten for
feline female babby
& lobby laddies burn babby
& buddies of de bodies seize red war
//
apeck moneys mit after mordency
lo a doll of diced lips clips family
& a dance of pure sex
drags a dance-hall for melodies
& we snap for scissor butter
..
ashen bled bees sweeten mumma
& a hill of lice
callows easy eddied sea-lights
& a man in a shroud hears summer
weeping for her dead god mother

a sexy idle snake crawled under
blonde bowls & dizzy salt thunder
& a king of hens
weeps where splayed vitamins
swallow wrenned roller rivers
/
eaters of tissued lead shiver
~& gold guides shape the blue

*
nappied naked shingle scatters cradlers when
families fling dopes at wedding rice
o  a don of dummy silver abuses lost life
& a bench of aces seats a patient's light
& cuckoo ken hashes nous when night
burns down.

we arse about a mouse as a vole of christs
crashes cellves within a broken blue father
o a a parent of mind-swells
weds an optic bird to a nest of larders
lo

nappied naked shingle scatters idlers when
honey bees in bearded trees topple
swine-forbidders of rubicund family hens
& we arouse rites with teary star-apples
lo

we ask for eats but we starve all year
& a ravenous treasure-horse heads fear
ravelling into the veilers of sad tears.

*
openers of raw-hide vermillion hastens blood to
wrap a doggy rider round sky-blue
o  a dangler under tribes cry, & hired dudes
heap a heated crow upon wasted eyed nudes

we awake to find a sun of loss heating
old grey cliffs when a pusher of cut dreamings
star-shoots a dizzy accidental car.  La, ceilings
dance all evening & a sea of doubt
drags a scissory highway outside screenings
.
openers of raw-hide vermillion hastens blood to
wrap a catty party around the fingers of bruised
american graffiti
..
we awake to find that love & life have moved
buttered clouds from far East to cutting sleuths
...
endless emptied flowers wilt as coloured truths
weep for eternal grace

*
facials glisten where a sunken body-bride
snaps her lipstick guide
o a veil of missions splays prayer as lies
hold all hands together
/
once aside crime, a hoody of a lover
hissed across a cooking silver mumma
& we have the padded mumma's mother
parenting the dead wiith daddy weather
..
facials glisten when a shrunken baby-bride
slaps her eased foundation;
& the heels of the seized peal for natrons
& the eels of the seized die for plectrums
& we fish after mermen
& we heed the fishman of Alcatraz?

eyes peer outside further eyes... La!
La    La  La  robots of Du?

*
daddy green bus catches us in awe
lo candy mean dust
raps our thumbs in sawn lustre  Oh
we paint rabbits where a cat of code
urinates on a hot jived paddle
..
daddy green bus catches us in walls
lo, coca-cola salt dust
cuts giddy soap with cocoa pus.
& a wife of night sweats for musk
& a blind hero jacks, jacks
.,.
eyes peer thru eyes as coaches
carry carriers where oats under roaches
wash mud hands in butter-brooches
& we delve for mint
& we mine for squints
..
daddy green bus catches us in awe
lo a heroin with a bone
bosses shot brides with easy stone
& we may swallow stone.

*
we wallowed in a stunned hot station
o a train of wine toasted heaven's mind
& a van of guns shot our gallop with pus
- 
as starry prison merchants dream of dined
chapter houses
oo we are aroused by lice as blue mines
dig after a heart of horses

we wallowed in a stunned hot station
o a car of quartz winds down the natron
of ruby tonsured vales
& the bed of bods which dreams for
old kids & stoned baby glass-wards
.
as tarry headed babies swallow cores
then a mental missile melts under claws
& a bird of pure music
sharpens spin demure body-remits
& a casement of curved drones rips
codas of furled mien & eagle-whores
..
the eager castle-chrome where i stored
disablers inside blind wine
has my eater of a groan sallying scores
.
eyes shooteth up when catters grind
alll city ballets down to a town's spine
& death has a skirt for a blamed mind..

*

21/12/2019